The red card and the reshuffling had two affects on the game. It rattled the AB's and inspired the Lions. Their second half play was v good and their defence line was up quick and hard. AB's were forced into making errors. Great game by Lions. SB Williams must have thought he was back in a rugby league match.

Even the best teams in world sport lose occasionally

Last edited by RugInt on Sun, 02 Jul 2017, 01:29, edited 1 time in total.

Moral victory for the Lions. I was certain the AB's would walk in a 3-0 series win. Wasn't a fan of the referee in the last test though. He basically bent the rules in the last minute to avoid the series being decided by an accidental offside. I understand the anticlimactic feeling of a series being decided that way but the referee needed to do his job in that instance and award the penalty to NZ.

I try to always avoid claiming that such-and-such ref or decision "cost them the match". Both French refs were quite bad - making poor calls both ways, have no idea about how the rucks should be contested and offside was confusing - they'd ping people for legitimate rucking, and then allow some very cynical play to go unpunished. Both the Lions and ABs will rue missed chances from that final match but a draw was a fair reflection overall.

Watch the replay of that "offside". If you look at the advertising on the field you can see that the ball was caught behind where it was released. The perception is skewed because Williams is being driven back so by the time Owens has the ball he is in front of Williams. Also I have watched the incident over and over and I think Gatland has a point in saying that the Lions player was in the air when Read hit him and Read got a touch on the ball before it was caught so technically it should have been a knock on or penalty to the Lions.

I think the ref had it spot on and kudos to him for getting confirmation on a decision that had such an important bearing not only on the match but the whole series.

The problem is if the incident happened 10 mins earlier it would been a penalty without doubt. In any other time during the match it's a penalty. He let emotions get the better of the decision making and fudged the rules to justify his decision. Basically, he tried to find a way not to award the penalty.

IMO Poite screw it from the first place, when he was to quick to blow the whistle. From there everything goes wrong. He should let the NZ player play the advantage and after the play was over (either NZ score a try or not) review it with TMO. Like this he disadvantage NZ from the first place. Of course is easy to say that from the pub .And yes i think the draw was deserved and Lions worth continue their legacy.Great series!